SGA budget cut causes changes in projects

By Jonathan Sampson
Staff Reporter

Student Government Association members said they don’t know what the organization’s main improvements project is going to be, but they do know it’s not going to be as big as originally planned.

The House of Student Representatives Permanent Improvements Committee’s budget went from $13,000 to $8,000 after TCU administration discovered a budget discrepancy, March 2.

SGA Advisor Larry Markley said the problem happened because $40,000 that was supposed to be allotted to the yearbook was mistakenly directed into the SGA account, causing SGA leaders to over budget by $23,000.

Markley said when they began to cut the budget throughout SGA, they first looked to areas with large amounts of remaining money. He said all other cuts were then considered on a case-by-case basis.

Chelsea Hudson, Permanent Improvements Committee chairwoman, said she was worried when she first heard her entire budget would be cut, but she said that now the cuts have been spread throughout SGA in a way where everyone is feeling the affects.

“We’re all taking this together so it’s not as bad,” she said.

Hudson said the impact of the $5,000 cut to the committee’s budget will mean a scaled down plan for this semester. She said her committee was originally planning to do one large project and supplement it with additional small jobs around campus, but now they’ll probably just do the one central project.

Hudson said her committee is currently gathering ideas for the project, and they plan to present the actual idea at the March 27 House meeting. She said in an earlier interview that the main goal of this semester’s project is to plan something that students can see as a visible reminder of SGA on campus.

Hudson said she was surprised there was a problem with the budget, and she said she thinks that TCU needs to work on its finances.

“To me, to misplace $40,000 sounds like a problem,” she said. “We’re losing money because it’s not being watched and that concerns me.”

She said she thinks the TCU administration should have helped out in some way with the budget, or at least have apologized for the mistake.

Markley said that if this was a situation where SGA had no money to work with, he thinks the administration would have stepped up and helped out, but since SGA still has a good amount of money in their reserve account it was not a large concern.

Rick Barnes, director of special projects for student affairs, said yearbook would not be in the position to help out with SGA’s budget. But he said he understands Hudson’s concern from a student’s point of view.

“If a mistake was made, maybe the university should help out,” he said.

But the Permanent Improvements Committee is not the only area feeling the crunch from the cuts.

Sara Komenda, Programming Council vice president, said things will be different this semester, but PC will continue with all of the projects already slated.

“We’re not going to have the semester we wanted,” she said. “But the (executive) council is great, and they’re dealing with it a lot better than I thought they would.”

She said the difference will come in the ideas committee leaders now bring to the group. She said the events will be reviewed by committee leaders, and money will be distributed on an individual basis.

Jonathan Sampson
j.m.sampson@student.tcu.edu